*** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and links

TEPCO to set up HQ in Fukushima to handle compensationTOKYO — Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO) will set up a headquarters in Fukushima City specifically to deal with paying compensation to victims of the nuclear crisis.

TEPCO said the headquarters will open in January, TBS reported. The utility has been processing applications and paying compensation from its Tokyo head office, but company officials said the process will function more smoothly with a major office near the front line.

Currently, TEPCO has 3,500 employees in Tokyo handling claims for compensation. Those 3,500 plus another 500 staff will be transferred to the new office in Fukushima, TEPCO said. [link to www.japantoday.com] .

More errors found in nuclear regulatory body's accident projectionsJapan's nuclear regulatory authority said Tuesday it has found more errors in its recently announced projections for the spread of radiation from reactors nationwide in the event of severe accidents.

The errors surfaced about a week after the Nuclear Regulation Authority had corrected simulation results for six nuclear power plants and Chairman Shunichi Tanaka had instructed the secretariat staff to make sure they would prevent a recurrence.

The latest errors were found in the projections for Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai and Sendai plants located in Saga and Kagoshima prefectures, respectively. The NRA secretariat said wind direction data submitted by Kyushu Electric were wrong in the first place. [link to english.kyodonews.jp] .

Finnish Fennovoima says new investor may be reactor supplierHELSINKI - The new head of Finnish nuclear consortium Fennovoima, whose reactor project was thrown into doubt by the withdrawal of its biggest investor E.ON last month, said a new investor in the venture could also be a supplier for the planned plant.

Fennovoima is due to choose next year between potential suppliers Areva or Toshiba to build its planned reactor in Pyhajoki, northern Finland. [link to www.msnbc.msn.com] .

The 1,400-megawatt Oskarshamn-3 reactor, the country’s biggest, is scheduled to operate throughout the winter, Roger Strandahl, a company spokesman, said today by phone from Malmoe, Sweden. The 473-megawatt Oskarshamn-1 plant is set to resume output on Nov. 12 after being idle for more than a year, according to the spokesman. [link to www.bloomberg.com] .

There was another “notification of an unusual event” at Prairie Island on Wednesday, Oct. 31. This time they said it was the failure of some security equipment.Prairie Island was built in the early 1970s and expected to last 30 years. It is now scheduled to continue operations until the early 2030s.

They have increased electrical output by putting bigger rods into chambers that were designed for smaller rods, presumably with equipment that was supposed to be obsolete in 2000.

Isn’t anyone concerned that putting 10 pounds of poison into a 5-pound sack with outdated equipment could put the entire water table of the Mississippi River basin at risk?

Employees at the MFP stressed that even though they’ll be working on the final closure period, operations will continue indefinitely.“It’s not over,” Stewart said. “That moves us into institutional control period and that’s federally mandated to last for 100 years, so that will be my grandchild’s problem.”

He continued:“The money will still have to come, it will still have to be monitored–the word they like to use is perpetuity - forever, because that stuff’s not going anywhere. There is nuclear waste in the ground so we have to monitor it and keep it contained.”

The valves had been installed during construction of the plant more than a quarter of a century earlier. The valves’ manufacturer introduced models having internal parts more resistant to corrosion but had never recommended that customers with older valves upgrade them. Workers at Harris replaced all three main steam isolation valves with the new models. The replacement valves were re-tested successfully.

The NRC dispatched a special inspection team to Harris in 2012. The NRC found that from the plant’s initial startup until 2000, workers had exercised the main steam isolation valves every three months per the manufacturer’s recommendation. These exercises involved closing each valve ten percent to verify proper functioning of the valves, their actuators, and controls. The plant’s owner discontinued this recommended testing in 2000 as a cost-saving measure. The safety evaluation per 10 CFR 5.59 performed in 2000 for discontinuing the quarterly exercising failed to mention that the valve vendor recommended the exercising or to discuss potential new failure modes – like the one that happened – that might be introduced by eliminating the periodic exercises.

Experts remain split over fissures under Ohi plantExperts of Japan's nuclear regulatory body have again failed to narrow their differences on an assessment of fissures below the country's only operational nuclear plant.

The 5 experts of the Nuclear Regulation Authority met on Wednesday to discuss whether the fissures under the Ohi plant in Fukui Prefecture make up an active fault line that could slide in an earthquake.

An official of the plant's operator, Kansai Electric Power Company, said a company's survey showed that an extension of the fissures was shorter than expected at 600 meters, and inactive. [link to www3.nhk.or.jp] .

TEPCO seeks more govt. financial assistanceThe operator of the defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is asking the central government for additional help in covering the costs of compensation and decontamination of areas hit by the nuclear disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced its new management plan for fiscal 2013 and 2014 on Wednesday.

In the plan, the utility says it wants to set up an office in Fukushima Prefecture with more than 4,000 employees to oversee compensation and nuclear decontamination efforts. It will serve as a Fukushima reconstruction headquarters. [link to www3.nhk.or.jp] .

Marubeni to enter mega-solar power businessTOKYO — Marubeni Corp will enter the mega-solar power market by constructing a large-scale solar power plant at the coastal industrial area of Oita No. 6 owned by its subsidiary, Marubeni Ennex Corp, Showa Denko KK and others.

The facility, with a targeted total capacity of 81.5MW - corresponding to the annual electricity consumption of 30,000 ordinary houses - will be the largest power business at one single place in Japan. [link to www.japantoday.com] .

TEPCO seeks more govt. financial assistanceThe operator of the defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is asking the central government for additional help in covering the costs of compensation and decontamination of areas hit by the nuclear disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced its new management plan for fiscal 2013 and 2014 on Wednesday.

In the plan, the utility says it wants to set up an office in Fukushima Prefecture with more than 4,000 employees to oversee compensation and nuclear decontamination efforts. It will serve as a Fukushima reconstruction headquarters. [link to www3.nhk.or.jp] .

Kudankulam project progresses, reactor vessel sealed Chennai, Nov 6 — The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) has crossed one more milestone -- sealing of the first 1,000-MW reactor pressure vessel, said a senior official Tuesday.

"Two German technicians completed the sealing of the reactor pressure vessel Friday. Now we are in the process of refixing and rewiring of the other systems located outside the vessel," the official, who did not want to be named, told IANS.

According to him, the sealing of the Russian-built reactor pressure vessel is a major milestone in the project's progress. [link to www.nucpros.com] .

India and Canada finalise conditions of nuclear deal(BBC) - India and Canada have finalised the terms for their nuclear deal, paving the way for Canadian firms to export uranium to India.

Once implemented, the deal is likely to provide a boost to India's plans to increase its nuclear capacity to meet growing energy demands.

The deal was agreed in 2010, but there had been differences over supervision of the use of uranium in India.

Canada has banned the trade of nuclear materials with India since 1976.

"Canada with its large and high quality reserves of uranium could become an important supplier to the Indian nuclear power programme," India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper said in a joint statement. [link to www.nucpros.com] .

GLP's best Fuku thread: Thread: *** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and linkstwitter: #citizenperth“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”- Albert Einstein

After 50 years of generating nuclear power and with approximately 67,000 tons of fuel being temporarily stored at about 75 operating and shutdown nuclear facilities, the United States is still at crossroads regarding what will be the nation’s policy for the disposition of its spent nuclear fuel.

Safety concerns also surround abandoned radioactive materials, known as orphan sources. These sealed sources of radioactive material are usually found in a condition that requires their removal to protect public safety from a radiological threat, or at a place for which a responsible party cannot be readily indentified.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Off-Site Source Recovery Project was created for this purpose – to remove excess, unwanted, or abandoned radioactive sealed sources – and has so far recovered more than 29,100 sources from around 1,000 sites across the U.S.

“Since this (UNF storage) has already been paid for via the utility NWF payments to the US Treasury of around $26bn, the NWF should be the source of funding. This is what it was created for and there is no excuse for not using it for its intended purpose. This again was recommended by the BRC”, says Barrett.

More than 60 lawsuits have been filed against the DOE by energy firms as a result of the federal government’s failure to begin disposing of UNF in 1998 as mandated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and while billions of dollars in damages have been awarded, dozens of lawsuits remain pending.